Malcolm Moore is the Telegraph's Shanghai Correspondent. He arrived in China in July 2008 after three years in Italy as the Telegraph's Rome Correspondent. Before that, he was the paper's Economics Correspondent.

Seven key dates for China in 2009

Happy New Year! or ç‰› (Niu, or cow) Year, as the Chinese are saying, because it will be the year of the Ox on January 26.

2008 was a difficult year for China, and 2009 is looking little better.

The economy is slowing down and there are dark mutterings that as many as 24 million could lose their jobs by the year's end.

It's also a year of anniversaries, some of which could trigger flashpoints of unrest. Here's a handy list:

March 10: 50th anniversary of the Tibetan revolt and the Dalai Lama's subsequent flight into exile. After five years of skirmishes outside Lhasa against Chinese rule, violence broke out in the capital.

On March 1, the Dalai Lama was asked to a "theatrical performance" and told not to bring his guards. On March 10, around 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace to stop him from leaving or being taken prisoner.

On March 17, after artillery shells landed near the palace, he fled.

Fighting continued the Tibetan Government in Exile claims 86,000 Tibetans were killed.

In the past week, the Chinese State Information Office has invited foreign journalists, who are normally barred from entering Tibet without accompaniment, to visit Lhasa in March and cover the anniversary.

April 25: 10th anniversary of the Falun Gong protests, when10,000 members of the spiritual movement gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Communist Party, in a silent protest against beatings and arrests that had been doled out to some members in Tianjin.

In response, the Communist Party banned Falun Gong in July and began a campaign against the sect, arresting thousands of members. According to Manfred Nowak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, Falun Gong members make up half the population of China's prison camps.

May 4: 90th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, a key moment in China's modern development when over 3,000 students protested in Tiananmen Square against China's imperialist overlords and the weak response of the Chinese government to the Treaty of Versailles, which granted Shandong province to Japan.

May Fourth sparked Chinese nationalism and encouraged the masses to become involved in politics, but at the same time set an example of students confronting authority.

June 4: 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square riots of 1989.

July: 50th anniversary of the Yellow River flooding that killed two million people and helped trigger the Great Famine, in which at least 30 million people are thought to have died.

October 1: Official 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong.

November 3: (thanks to Access Asia for spotting this one) 170th anniversary of the first Opium War between Britain and China. Fighting started after Britain refused to concede to demands by the Qing emperor that British ships should sign bonds promising not to smuggle opium on pain of death.